To the best of my knowledge, the finishing strike is from Daito Ryu and is symbolic of drawing one's auxiliary weapon and dispatching the enemy.

That's what Kondo writes in his book on the IKKAJO. Interestingly, some aikido people still do fininshing strikes on occassion. You especially see it on tests where the take away a TANTO and stab UKE with it (i.e., TWO felonies would have occured...)

On the Expo take from Aikido Journal, Utada finishes many of his techniques with strikes. Maybe Mustard did, too. They're both Yoshinkan players. That might be coincidence. How about it guys, do you train that in Yoshinkan?